Equipping & Encouraging Sunday School and Small Group Leaders

Time-shift your training to grow leaders and expand Sunday School

This post isn’t about something from the world of sci-fi, although it sounds like it! Almost every science fiction franchise has experimented with time-traveling and time-altering storylines. And while those are fun and entertaining, they just aren’t reality. But here’s an idea for you to consider that does involve some time-shifting, and that might be a real possibility in your world. If you struggle to find time to regularly train group leaders (I’m talking to pastors, education pastors, Sunday School directors!), perhaps a simple shift in time would do the trick.

Time-Shift to Sunday Morning Leader Training

Wait a minute! Sunday mornings? Are you crazy? I can hear the objections now: “We have Sunday School and worship on Sunday morning – there’s no time for any leader training.”

Actually, there is. And for many of you, this will make sense on your church calendar.

How this works: 2 options

Option 1: Schedule training at the same time your Sunday School meets. Just choose an unoccupied classroom and schedule the training with your group leaders.

Your group leaders are already committed to be on campus Sunday morning. Some churches struggle to find a time when it’s convenient for group leaders to receive training – so this is a good answer to that age-old problem.

You have things for the group leader’s kids to do, like Sunday School, at no additional cost.

Group leaders must find a substitute teacher or allow an apprentice teacher to lead their group once a month, which grooms the next generation of leaders for your Sunday School.

Group leaders are not asked to come back to the church on Sunday night, Wednesday night, or any other night of the week.

It provides regular, monthly training for group leaders, which will help the quality of your Sunday School. It will also help your Sunday School’s attendance to climb (Georgia state Sunday School leaders discovered that if a church had monthly training for its group leaders, churches grew an average of over 13% during a four-year survey period – and that’s significant!).

I actually time-shifted my adult group leader’s training at the last church I served. We found that Sunday morning worked very well for our group for all of the above reasons.

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4 comments

Thank you for your regular investment in our ministry via your helpful articles. So I am blessed to have Dr. Allan Taylor’s training material, “Sunday School Matters”. Most volunteers ‘bristled’ at the idea of giving up a Friday night or Saturday for training. While it’s my #1 priority, it really isn’t theirs. I am intrigued by your post. Do you have any thoughts about me offering a session per week for 12 weeks?

Michael, thanks for following the blog. Allan actually recommends it at his workshops (he and I are good friends). Let’s set up a time to talk over the phone. I’m out of the office tomorrow. How would some time on Thursday afternoon work?